Union County Health Department staff may need to take furlough days due to projected revenue declines because of the COVID-19 response.
During Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting, which was held virtually via Zoom, Fiscal Officer Amy Hamilton shared updates surrounding the agency’s budget.
Throughout the pandemic, she said she has been closely reviewing and monitoring the budget.
Hamilton said she has projected some revenue declines based on staff hours spent with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and grant deliverables that are on hold.
If current operations and payroll stay the same, she said cash reserves at the end of the year would be at 40%. She said the Board of Health aims for 50% each year.
She said “nobody ever wants to hear this,” but she and Health Commissioner Jason Orcena have considered implementing furlough days to make up the difference.
“Our hope is we don’t have to engage that, but the reality is, we are a service organization so our biggest expense is people,” Orcena said.
He added, “It’s a very poor way to reward folks who work so hard for the community during the crisis to say, ‘Oh, by the way, we have to cut your salary.’”
Based on her projections, Hamilton said each furlough day per two-week pay period will add 4% to the cash reserves.
A one-day furlough would bump cash reserves to 44%, while a two-day furlough would result in 48%.
Hamilton said her calculations are for a furlough starting with the May 29 pay period, which is for work beginning at the start of May, through the end of the year. She said that includes about 16 pay periods but they could adjust the length.
The potential furlough days would begin then, Hamilton explained, because the end of May will be past the “surge planning phase” when staff is needed to prepare for a possible spike in COVID-19 cases.
Along with the COVID-19 response, Director of Health Promotion and Planning Shawn Sech said potential changes to grant funding will affect this year’s budget.
She said much of the grant funding UCHD receives is “deliverable-based,” meaning certain outcomes have to be achieved in order to receive the funding.
This can create issues because many UCHD staff members have shifted from their normal duties to COVID-19 response work. Additionally, the pandemic has caused many of the health department’s community partners to temporarily cease work, which makes deliverables difficult or impossible to meet.
For instance, Sech said it is difficult to meet deliverables for the Older Adult Falls and Injury Prevention program, since older adults are a vulnerable group especially encouraged to stay home during the pandemic.
Similarly, she said one staff member’s grant funding requires him to dedicate a number of hours to his grant work, which puts him “most at risk.”
To alleviate the situation, Orcena said he has also considered putting out a voluntary furlough request to see if there is any interest from staff members that could prevent the overarching, mandatory days.
He and Hamilton said there is no definitive decision as to how or if furlough days will be implemented, but it will likely need to made sooner rather than later.
“We’re going to potentially have to take drastic action in the fall if we don’t take some less painful steps in the summer,” Orcena said.
In other business:
– Orcena said UCHD is focused on increasing hospital capacity, as well as contact tracing, or the notification of close contacts of infected individuals that helps stop the spread of infections.
Union County cases are going to continue to grow, Orcena said, so “contact tracing will be the key intervention once we get past the surge concern.”
Currently, UCHD nurses and two epidemiologists are trained to help with contact tracing but Orcena said “it doesn’t take a lot to get overwhelmed” so they are seeking volunteers from outside the agency to assist.
– The Board accepted the Coronavirus Response grant award for $70,436 from the Ohio Department of Health.
Orcena said the award was granted by the state to different agencies per capita. About $24,000 from the grant will be given to the Kenton-Hardin Health District, which acts as a subcontractor of UCHD.
– The Board voted unanimously to suspend the home sewer treatment system permit deadline until the pandemic has passed.
Orcena said the late fee for payments will not be applied until June 30. Payments made after that date will have a late fee applied to taxes in August, through the county auditor’s office.